1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention generally relates to accessing computer application programs and data in a speedy and efficient and consistent manner and, more particularly, to providing users with a tool to assist them in navigating through a plurality of related or unrelated application programs in a multi-tasking environment with a minimum of keystrokes so as to display desired data on a computer display screen.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A relatively recent advance in the computer arts allows users to simultaneously access, display and manipulate data from a variety of related and/or unrelated computer application programs. This process is referred to as "multi-tasking". In a true multi-tasking system, several application programs are active simultaneously. Multi-tasking has been simulated on some of the less powerful personal computers in that only one application is in fact active at any one time, but the user interface presents the appearance of multi-tasking. Activity relating to each application is displayed in what is termed a "window". These windows can either overlap and, partially or completely, obscure each other or be presented in a visually discrete, i.e., nonoverlapping, manner. The user may at his own option work with data in any of the open windows by changing his active work area. Examples of windowing programs include Windows.TM. published by Microsoft Corp. and DesQview.TM. published by Quarterdeck Office Systems. Both of these windowing systems support the IBM Personal System 2 (PS/2) series of personal computers.
There are, however, certain inherent problems in most such windowing systems. In order to reach the data which he desires to manipulate, the user must often follow a different and sometimes complicated procedure for each application program and, within each program, at each level of data type, such as file, page or word, which he attempts to access. Consequently, the user faces a loss of time due to the number of keystrokes necessary simply to obtain a visual image of the ultimate object data and due to the time necessary for the system to respond to the different commands given it. Furthermore, the user's job is made even more difficult due to the necessity to remember a multiplicity of different interface and access procedures for different application programs and for different levels within the same application program. Finally, since many true multi-tasking systems allow access between any level of one active program to any level of another active program, such systems require an unusually large amount of resident memory in order to service such requests promptly and efficiently.
Certain application programs have attempted to solve these problems but have done so at the expense of various desirable features. For example, the HyperCard program of Apple Computer, discussed at length in The Complete HyperCard Handbook, by Danny Goodman, Bantam Books (1987), provides a simple means for avoiding a predetermined organizational scheme when accessing object data, allowing direct linking of various disparate types of data at the user's command via activation of a "button". Although this program provides a uniform, simple and relatively swift method of interfacing between different types of data which may be stored in completely different formats, it suffers from an inability to display more than one type of object data at a time on screen and from a requirement for an enormous amount of resident memory and static storage capacity to function properly. Moreover, this program is designed to be a toolkit enabling users to design their own permanent links between data, thereby creating new applications rather than a program for providing swift access to levels of data within other pre-existing application programs which are not otherwise interconnected.
Another approach is a utility program published by SoftLogic Solutions as SoftwareCarousel. This program permits up to ten different application programs or data files to be loaded and allows the user to move from one to the other with a single key stroke. The utility requires configuration by the user. It is not a multi-tasking system.
What is needed is a computer program which operates in a windowing environment and provides easy access to different levels of other application programs through a uniform, short procedure which does not require an inordinate amount of either computer resident memory or external storage space. The operation of the program should be user transparent requiring no configuration by the user.